Posted in: Comics | Tagged: black, black mask, kickstarter, white

White, the Sequel to Black, Launches on Kickstarter

Published Mon, 04 Mar 2019 15:31:02 -0600

The sequel to critically-acclaimed comic Black is called White, and it's raising funds on Kickstarter starting today! Black, a comic set in a world where only Black people have superpowers and exploring the way America reacts to that (spoiler: negatively), originally launched on Kickstarter in 2016, went on to be a success at Black Mask Studios and even led to spinoff projects. Now, co-creators Kwanza Osajyefo and Tim Smith 3, artist Jamal Igle, and cover artist Khary Randolph are back with a sequel, called White, to be published by Black Mask, but with the first printing and variants by available only to Kickstarter backers, with a planned ship date of October 2019.

The premise:

In WHITE, Theodore Mann, whose family exploited empowered blacks for centuries, is now President of the United States. Mann's administration has exacted controversial measures to deal with the empowered he's deemed terrorists and is stoking national tensions to win public support for Mann First, a cybernetically-augmented soldier program. The main person standing in the President's way is X – once known as Kareem Jenkins – who has become a symbol of resistance against the Mann Administration.

A U.S. president stoking national tensions to win support for racist policy? That sounds likely highly unlikely. But it is fiction, after all.

For this sequel, the second part of a planned trilogy, Kwanza Osajyefo, Tim Smith 3, Jamal Igle, Khary Randolph, Sarah Litt, Derwin Roberson, and Dave Sharpe will be joined by inker Juan Castro, with variant covers created by Ashley A. Woods, Jamal Igle, Jeremy Love, ChrisCross, Sanford Greene, and Denys Cowan.

Said Osajyefo in a press release:

How does a nation struggling with a history of racial inequality cope in a world where only black people have superpowers? Our story asks: In a time of supposed inclusion and diversity, how far will those in charge push back to retain the status quo?

We've been lucky to build the world of BLACK through Kickstarter and at Black Mask Studios, but to continue telling stories the way we want, we need to keep challenging ourselves, and the publishing paradigm, by making these special first printings of WHITE exclusively available through this crowdfunding campaign

And said Tim Smith 3:

We're thrilled to return to the world of BLACK. This is the second part of a planned trilogy and we can't tell the story or finish what we've started without the support of Kickstarter and our fans who have encouraged us."

And Igle:

The overwhelming support we received from the Kickstarter community took us all by surprise. We were initially a little taken aback by just how much BLACK resonated with readers. As a comic book creator, there's no better feeling than getting this kind response. Meeting fans of BLACK at comic book conventions and hearing from backers is gratifying and inspiring. We're thrilled to be back, telling the story in the way we envisioned it, on our terms.

Reserve your copy on Kickstarter today.